Remember this matter is taken from St. Alphonsus Liguori’s “Life of the Religious.”
“There is no consecration so profound, so entire as that of ‘religious’ on the day of their profession, because there is none so purifying, so constant, or so religious. The consecration of bishops and priests is more exalted, as being a Sacrament; it is more noble, as conferring a more sublime dignity and ineffable character; yea, it is more powerful, because it imparts to a mere creature some of the powers of God. But it is not so complete as the monastic consecration, because it does not include a man’s entire separation from himself and from the world; it is not so entire, because it does not absolutely consume the liberty, the independence, and the spontaneousness of his nature: it is a great sacrifice and a great Sacrament, but not a TRUE HOLOCAUST.”
I would urge my readers to stay a moment and mark carefully, and inwardly digest this description of a nun’s life. Where is the liberty that is so vainly spoken of? Are we not here told that a nun by her profession has her liberty absolutely consumed; that is to say, she is a prisoner for life?
Notice, I pray you, the words “it is a true holocaust.” In fact, the sin of the children of Israel, who “caused their sons to pass through the fire,” is committed over again. As king Manasseh “caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom,” so under the pretence of offering the nuns to the service of God, the Roman Catholics, and alas! members of the Church of England, “sacrifice their sons and daughters to devils” (Ps. cvi. 37). It is nothing but Moloch worship over again. But to proceed with Liguori’s description of the life of the religious:
“The violation of the vows is then a very grievous sin against the virtue of religion—(it is) the crime of sacrilege. Man, consecrated to God and to His service, becomes something divine; he owes himself, therefore, a religious respect, which rebounds ever to God; and if ever he should dishonour by mortal sin the virtues of poverty, obedience, and virginity, of which he has made profession, he would commit an outrage against the Divine honour, he would be guilty of sacrilege. What rashness! what crime! what impiety would it not be then in you to violate your vows!
“The infidelity of consecrated persons is more awful than the sacrilege committed against holy places, Eucharist vessels, holy pictures, or relics. Your soul would shudder at the mere thought of a desecrated temple, a dishonoured ciborium, a broken crucifix, or of a saint’s body cast into the flames: would it then consent to far more horrible crimes, or to more infamous violations? Virginity derives not its nobility and worth from itself, but rather because it is an offering to the Lord, inspired and preserved by prudence and piety of the soul.
“If it should happen that a religious, in drawing comparison between his life and that of Christians in the world, should be seized with a holy fear lest he be less zealous, less pure, or less fervent than many of them, he may still find a legitimate reassurance in the thought that his actions, though they may be apparently less virtuous and brilliant, derive, notwithstanding, greater value and more real devotion than theirs from the virtue of religion, which is their chief source, and which has so high a place amongst the more virtuous.”
Do we not see here how a nun is taught to meet what must be an oft-recurring thought—that her life is utterly useless, and that she is unable to devote herself actively to the service of God, and that misery and unhappiness surround her, and that she cannot be so pure as many who, living in the world, are not shut up, so to speak, with only their own heart’s corruptions to brood over. She is taught that all these serious failings are more than atoned for by the mere fact that she has made a solemn profession of poverty, chastity, and obedience. But to proceed.
“He may be consoled that he has eternally consecrated to the Lord the root of his actions in such a way that they all bear the threefold character of a profound religion, ardent generosity (?), and eternal attachment to that which is good. We may reasonably suppose that on its entrance into religion, by making profession of the vows, the Christian soul obtains remission of all its sins. Not that the religious profession, considered in itself, possesses a sacramental virtue, operating by its own intrinsic and independent office, or that it can, like baptism and penance, blot out the stain of sin; but if it be sincere, it is a most excellent act of perfect charity, which unites us very closely to God, by an effectual outpouring of His sanctifying grace, and by an abundant remission of those temporal punishments which remain due to sin after its guilt has been forgiven.
“Before dismissing this noble subject of religious profession let us not omit to observe that the vow of obedience is its chief feature. That which is done by obedience is more agreeable to God than that which is performed by one’s own will. Your Superior is like a sacred vessel wherein God has placed for us all His desires and graces, and the true proof of religious sanctity, the sure token of perfection, is the perfection of obedience to all Superiors.